Mixing up the Dishes ~ In a Hurry!

 

 

Hello again!  Let me start by saying I LOVE my dishes and I love my napkins.  It’s fun mixing and matching and playing around with things  ~~~~~

BUT

   If I don’t have guests coming over for dinner it seems unreal to put a lot of time into a tablescape.  Today I’ll be showing you how to create a finished table with color and interest FAST!

 

Don’t get me wrong, for those of you who pour lots and lots of time into it, I am the first to say I appreciate your efforts.  My spring show is just around the corner and I feel guilty not being downstairs working instead of playing!  LOL!  When I am really entertaining I spend lots of time on my tables, tweaking and playing and redoing til the guests arrive!

Since it’s time for Susan’s Tablescape Thursday over at Between Naps on the Porch I hurriedly started looking through dishes seeing what would be pretty together.  I happened to have four of these precious little salad plates out on display

so that was my starting point.  Oh yes, they did come from the Thrift Store and have a couple of little chips, but you won’t see those. They are underneath. There are no markings so don’t know anything about them other than I had to have them, chips and all.

 

Knowing you can’t go wrong with solid white that was next in line. Johnson Brothers Ironstone, England.

 

 

Okay, we are all itching for spring, so let’s pull out these Robin’s Egg Blue chargers.  These I found last year and I LOVE THEM! Remember, stack stuff up.  It always looks more impressive that way.

Next we need napkins.  First I thought I would use the white ones with black I found awhile back, clearanced at Pottery Barn.  Hummm, they are okay, but a little formal.  Plus we are all eager for color and who doesn’t love this bright green?  I promise I would have ironed them if you had been actually coming for a meal!  These came from World Market.

 

 

My running bunnies were just pulled out last weekend and Yes, they will work fine for the centerpiece.  Notice the antique tray.  It’s one of my favorite Goodwill finds.  I did have a new mirror made to fit and it looks wonderful in so many ways.

A splash of a soft flower and some gorgeous deep blackberries and we have plenty of color and variety to make this table work in a matter of minutes.  The little silver pedestal dish was an estate sale find.

Some glasses, silverware and tiny little individual bunnies and birds finish this table off nicely.  See?  You too can put together a table anyone would enjoy sitting down to in nothing flat!

Oh, I almost forgot to show you this SWEET little platter that I added to the table.  It will certainly hold something I am serving.  It is made in France and I found it in an antique store in North Carolina.  It’s one of my favorites.

 

Okay, before I go over to see everyone’s tables this week I will first “unset” my table.  Are we craZy or what??

 

 

 

 

As always, I thoroughly enjoy your comments and visits.  Thanks for stopping by!

I am also pleased to be joining Linda at A la Carte for Junkin’ Finds Friday

Debra at Common Grounds for Vintage Inspiration Finds and

Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday.

 

So Many Changes in the Works!

 

 

What a fun weekend!  It was filled with family fun AND talks of decorating!

 

 

 

 

The newlyweds came home and we got to meet Gordita.   She is growing but still full of lots of puppy spunk…

 

And Puppy Kisses!

 

Maggie watched behind the scenes fearing the worse…. Nervous as the cat she is that we had brought another beloved pet into her domain to stay.  She watched with scary eyes, rarely taking her eyes off of the puppy.

 

My sister in law Connie was over.  Connie loves to decorate too.  We went through fabric books searching for a nice piece to go on Jamie’s salvaged chair.

  I was looking on my computer trying to find a “before” picture of this chair (with no luck).  It was one of those great finds that you are SO excited about…a chair abandoned by someone moving from an apartment and having no interest in a piece of furniture with SO much character!  What is wrong with these people? It was a dull, scratched white with no seat or back, just sitting by the dumpster.  Jamie looked at me in disbelief when I stopped my SUV, opened the back door and quickly threw our great salvaged piece in the back. She is in training, don’t you know?

Here it is painted and sanded with a bottom but still in need of a back and FABRIC!

 

 

Below are a couple of her favorites.  She has darling vintage turquoise chairs in her living room, so this piece with the blue would be so cute. 

 

But isn’t this a black and white fabric worthy of strong consideration?  We got busy doing other things and she still hasn’t given me her final decision.

 

On to another project.  I have a pair of wingbacks that are probably 22 years old.  When they left my living room I just couldn’t part with them because I loved the legs.  The structure is still solid but the fabric certainly needs changing.  I have a new place where they the chairs can reside ~~ in the downstairs family room.  It will be fun to have them reupholstered.

 

 

 

Here’s what I’m strongly considering.  Doesn’t it tie in with the other patterns and elements in the room?

While I had my strong son in law home along with my strong husband, I had them move some other furniture around.  I am now sitting at my new to me desk and am in the midst of flip flopping our downstairs furniture upstairs.  Everything is a mess right now but hopefully I will have some finished results to share soon.

 

 

Lots of projects going on along with preparing silk plants for my spring show.  Life is busy but life is good!

I hope you are feeling the same way.

 

Until next time……

No Longer Singing the Blues

 

Let me just say it right off the bat

 

I am NOT a blue person.  Not sure why because I was raised with blue.  Everything my mother ever wants in clothes and home décor is blue!  I always asked for everything to be red.

I am NOT a blue person and never have been ~~  Well, until NOW.

 

Ever since I picked up the blogging fever I have fallen in love with all the blue tablescapes that sprout up all over Blogland.  I now LOVE blue dishes and have been on the lookout for some.

We who thrift know that sooner or later we will more than likely find some form of what we are searching for.

 

The back side picture turned out pretty good.  You can see the pattern is called Yorktown by Salem China Co.

funny thing…  I was raised in Yorktown, Virginia

 

 

 

 

I’m pretty sure it was the same day I found the dishes I found six blue glasses.

On Monday of this week I found two more that match!

 

This is the old wicker vase I pictured this week.  Sorry I didn’t take time to do a proper centerpiece, but love these white flowers along with their deep green leaves.

Real looking?  Wouldn’t you agree?

 

Is he not the sweetest little thing? 

The price you ask??  (well no, your manners are too good) but I just have to tell you!

He was 89 cents!! 

 

I am also loving this grape edged blue dishes.  I found two large bowls and two small bowls.  I really, really love these and will be looking for more.  The back reads

Double Phoenix

Nikko Ironstone

 

This pitcher just had to come home with me.  The bottom says it’s from Bombay Company.  I miss that store.

 

 

Well there you have my case of the blues poured out from me to you.

Have any others taken a liking to blue too?  Funny how we change our minds.  Maybe, just maybe I have had a little too much red through all these years.

Join me, won’t you?  I’m linking up with Susan and Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday and Cindy at My Romantic Home.  Also joining Linda at A la Carte.

I’m happy you stopped by.  Please take a moment to say hello!

Donna

Ready to Begin Creating for My Spring Show

 

Another shipment of mostly spring silk flowers arrived. It is definitely getting me motivated to start creating.

 

Pretty soon the flowers will begin moving fast and furious through my hands as I prepare for my Spring show at the end of this month.

 

 

Look at these sweet Spring berries, all pink and green.

 

This boxwood works well in so many arrangements.  Often times I cut it apart.

Maggie tried very hard to stay interested in what was inside Box Number Three but she couldn’t resist snuggling up in the noisy paper.  She was asleep inside here til I walked up with my camera to catch her in the act of Cuteness!

 

 

Oh Lookie Here

Pink Japanese Magnolia Branches

 

I do believe they look like something from the pages of Pottery Barn for sure.

 

Before I begin creating for my potential Spring customers there was another arrangement that needed my attention.

 

White footed container found at Goodwill.  Love it!

 

 

I am on the decorating committee at our church….and of course own the title of the Altar Flowers person.  There are some Sundays when no one signs up to donate fresh flowers.  We were in need of a new faux arrangement to bring out for those flowerless Sundays.

 

 

Step by Step you are watching the act of a faux arrangement coming together.

 

Let’s get some more color going on.

I LOVE these beautiful deep orangey red roses.  They are called a Confederate rose.

Let’s add another…

The song leaders aren’t happy if I get my arrangements too big.  They say they can’t see.  So I must limit the size.  (They always try to ruin my fun!)

 

We are almost there…just a little filler flower and seed stem for texture… 

 

Don’t mind the background mess.  There is almost no place to take a picture without something around me in my crazy, fun workroom.

 

There you have it

 

 

I will live with it a couple of days, walking past it, studying it.

Looking to see if anything needs to be changed.

If any of you have a difficult time finding quality faux stems in your area, stay tuned.  I am considering opening an Etsy Shop with stems, a few accessories and smaller arrangements.  Input?

Thanks for stopping by 47th Street!

Donna

Good Sunday Morning!

For months I have been wanting to join Chari over at

Happy to Design

for Sunday Favorites

I was a little intimidated by how to do this but finally decide certainly I could figure it out.
This post seem to be a perfect starting point for a Sunday morning.
Won't you join me over at Chari's to revisit great posts from the past?






A couple of incidents have happened recently that I thought were worthly of blogging about.

They truly are just little things ~~ things I wouldn't give a second thought had happened if it hadn't been for the results.

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No, I didn't receive an award or a call from someone in a high office, but the results of my small actions certainly made me feel good.

Today I am asking you to try something similar and see how much happiness the little things can bring.

During late winter a friend I don't know real well was to have surgery. She is in a book club I recently joined. While we are far from best friends, I really enjoy being around her. She's just a happy, fun person. Somehow I remembered her surgery had taken place about that time and a couple of weeks later I decided to sit down and send her a card. I didn't have an appropriate get well card, but I had some cute little note cards on hand and felt that would be just fine. I told her I was thinking of her and hoped she was recovering nicely and enjoying all the books she had planned to read during her time off work.
I saw this lady a couple of weeks ago and she came right up to me and starting gushing over this note I had sent her. You would think I had done something really spectacular!! She just kept putting her hand over her heart and smiling and saying what a nice person I was! I only wrote a note! She went on to tell me how pleased she was that I was in her life and on and on and on and on!! We had our book club meeting and before we parted ways that fun evening, she came over to me and once again pretty much repeated the opening part of this paragraph! I was simply amazed at her reaction to a little handwritten note.

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Last night I was in a store at our local mall making a return for my daughter. I was second in line and within a few minutes I placed my bag on the counter and told the young girl I had a return to make. She was quite cheerful and professional. She went about the return procedure very effeciently. As I stood waiting I noticed her eyes. They were stunning, very dark brown eyes.

In recent years I have made a promise to myself to pass on a compliment rather than keeping it to myself. It is such a little thing that can make a person really feel good. Who doesn't love a compliment?

I said to her, "You have beautiful eyes!" Her reply was, "What did you say?" I repeated myself and I actually heard her take several little breaths. She blushed and strongly thanked me, the whole time smiling as big as she could. She said to me that no one had ever told her that before. As we finished up the return, she excitedly told me I had made her day. She was still smiling and truly taking in her breath! As I walked away from the counter, I heard her say to the clerk next to her, "She told me I have pretty eyes!" I almost got teary just thinking how something so little on my part was so big to her!

Try doing something simple for someone and see

how good it makes YOU feel!

Happy thoughts and words and deeds are contageous!